08 August 2007

NHS, vol. 2

Turns out I have Plantar Fasciitis. Note to all runners out there: don't forget to stretch and update your shoes! (I did the latter, but have been remiss with the former.) This is good news in that I don't need to stay off my feet, but bad news if walking around London turns out to be excruciating.

I won't provide the detailed time line of my experience, as I did last time. But I have to make one small comment in regard to the health care 'debate' over at FFB. My wager is this: if every American could somehow have their own encounter with a national health system like the one here, then there would be national health insurance in the US within one election cycle.

No. 3's experience, by the way, perfectly mimics the one that R had about 5 years ago. They don't know what to do if you don't smoke, and getting through the bureaucracy is impossible.

In stark contrast, this morning I made one phone call at 8.35am, was on hold for less than 1 minute, made an appointment for 9am the same day, saw the doctor at 9.04, and then had an actual intelligent conversation with him. I left his office with (free) prescription in hand at 9.10.

3 comments:

Fro--I have had my own struggles with the dreaded plater fasciitis. In my case, it was caused by "coming back" to quickly off another running injury (ITB--which is much worse, btw). My recommendation is ICE.

With the icing, if possible--and it sounds like you are on the road, so maybe not--freeze water in those little Dixie cup-style drinking cups and use those to massage the affected area of the foot. Icing 2-3 times a day, especially after walking-running does wonders. 10-20 minutes each time.

If the p.f. isn't very serious, it's actually an injury that "warms up" as you walk-run. So I had p.f. for years, and I still ran a couple marathons while keeping it under control. It tends to hurt the most at 3 minutes of running, for me, and then stop hurting until, well, 15 miles or so.

Thanks, 3. I haven't heard from anyone whose had p.f. and most of the material on the internet is targeted to folks who get it because they are overweight and/or standing a lot - not really to folks who get it from running and such.

I will UP my ice quotient based on your advice. I think what has happened in my case is that I had p.f. for a long time but did not know it. I had the soreness in my heels in the morning, but it was gone in 10 minutes and I thought nothing of it. It never hurt while I was running, though, until it came on last week when I was walking, and it was TERRIBLY painful. I think stretching constantly and resting a bit is helping, but more ice can't hurt.